Essay · About a 7 minute read

Are You Building a Vitamin or a Painkiller? Why Painkillers Always Win

Brian Rhea · brianrhea.com Free Beginner

This is the sharpest short framework for the exact question: is the problem a nice-to-have (vitamin) or something people are actively hurting from (painkiller). Rhea's most useful test is a gut check on your own interviews, if you find yourself convincing a prospect they have a problem, or getting excited every time you catch a glimpse of it, that is a warning sign you have a vitamin. It reframes the judgment from what you hope is true to what customers already feel without you nudging them.

  • Painkillers get bought without reminders because the pain is already felt; vitamins get put off because the need is theoretical and non-urgent.
  • If you are talking a prospect into believing they have the problem during an interview, you are probably looking at a vitamin, real pain shows up on its own.
  • Find the pain first through honest customer conversations, then design the fix, not the other way around.
Open on brianrhea.com ↗
Devang Tarsariya 1 founder recommend

It answers 2 questions

  1. How do I know if my idea is a real problem or just a 'nice to have'?
  2. How do I tell the difference between a nice-to-have problem and one people will actually change their behavior to fix?

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